Monday, March 26, 2007

The History & the Mystery of the Middleboro Gazette

My family history can be traced back through many various generations in Middleboro, Massachusetts (sometimes also spelled Middleborough). This area is particularly important to me, as it is where one of my brick-wall ancestors lived with her husband.

As a result, I find the Middleboro Gazette a very useful newspaper. Unfortunately, a very large portion of the years are missing.

The Middleborough Public Library holds microfilms for 1852 through 1868, and 1904 onward. This is a problem, because we are looking at a 36 year gap. THIRTY-SIX YEARS.

And we all know that it only takes the decade between censues for families to disappear. It has happened to us all. What is a genealogist to do?

We know very well that the Middleboro Gazette was in production during those missing years. The 1884 Middleboro Directory has an advertisement for the newspaper on page 97. Where did the missing years go?

The Wareham News was published under the same management at the time. Are there issues of that missing? According to my cousin, there are missing issues!

Did the missing issues disappear when the management changed? Do they still exist and, if so, where?

I would love for those issues to be found if they are still in existence, and researching this is definitely on my list of things to do!

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About Me

Wendy is a contemporary and steampunk fantasy author, co-author of "Steampunk for Simpletons," and a genealogical Nancy Drew in disguise. A college town New Englander turned one-horse town Nebraskan, she raises a cup of Dunkies to life among cornfields and coyotes. She is still pleasantly surprised that amber waves of grain exist, and has declared the Midwestern prairies "wicked cool."